Call me a pessimist, but unfortunately it looks more and more like we are headed toward a Biden presidency. The lockdown has savaged America’s economy and the country is not likely to fully recover before 2021.
22 million Americans are now out of work because of the COVID-19 pandemic and many of them are Trump supporters. Among the jobless are 45,000 employees of Houston’s billionaire Rockets owner and restaurant, hotel and casino mogul Tillman Fertitta. He had the audacity to say that by furloughing his employees, he was doing them a favor because they would be first in the unemployment line. A favor? I seriously doubt that any of those now 45,000 jobless Fertitta employees think he did them a favor by leaving them standing in long unemployment lines to apply for checks that will be smaller than what they got while employed, thus also forcing many of them to wait in long food bank lines.
Even when the economy is reopened , a significant number of the now jobless will not get their jobs back. Although they are receiving stimulus money, some of the small businesses will not reopen. Among the large businesses, Macy and J C Penney are facing bankruptcy and if they survive, it will be with far fewer stores, leaving thousands unemployed.
The jobless Trump supporters are not likely to stick with the president if they are still unemployed by October. Economists and virologists agree that the pandemic will prevent a full recovery of the economy before some time in 2021. If the economy has not recovered substantially by October and/or the unemployment rate remains high, history tells us that Biden will kick Trump’s ass out of the White House.
Trump is not helping his cause any. He has been heading down the path of self-destruction. It has become apparent that he is suffering from a bad case of egomania, claiming he has absolute power over the states, having his name put on the relief checks and threatening to shut down the Senate because it won’t confirm his appointments.
“When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total and that’s the way it’s gonna be. It’s total. It’s total. The governors know that.” That was Trump’s answer when asked if he could order the governors to end the lockdown and reopen the economy. He was immediately schooled by NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo about the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, which states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
When governors on the East and West coasts formed pacts to decide when to reopen their economies, Trump accused them of mutiny and threatened to withhold coronavirus aid to their states. He tweeted: “Tell the Democrat Governors that ‘Mutiny On The Bounty’ was one of my all time favorite movies. A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain. Too easy!” Now we have Trump depicting himself as Captain Bligh.
Further evidence of egomania is Trump ordering the IRS to put his signature on the coronavirus stimulus checks. Informed by the Treasury Department that would be illegal, the IRS complied when he then ordered that his name appear somewhere on the relief checks. Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s order “shameful.” Placing Trump’s name on those checks caused a delay in sending them out.
Trump’s latest daily news briefings and tweets of fake facts and unsustainable threats have cost him some supporters. Daily Mail columnist Piers Morgan, who has been a personal friend of the president and a fierce critic of the Democrats and the media for their relentless and unfair treatment of Trump, now calls him “deluded, boastful, petty and spiteful.”
An ardent Trumper responded to Morgan’s attack by belittling the columnist and saying: “President Trump makes mistakes. Everyone does.” But calling Trump’s threats and constitutional ignorance mistakes is akin to saying a person who commits a crime has made a mistake. A mistake is multiplying 3 by 2 and coming up with 5, or going to the grocery store and picking up a container of cottage cheese when you intended to buy sour cream.
Trump’s self-destructive ramblings are not helping him in his campaign to defeat Joe Biden who will be a formidable opponent with his pick of a woman for vice president – probably Amy Klobuchar – even if the economy is robust again by October. And with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren endorsing him, the Bernie Bros, as well as Warren’s supporters, who craved their socialist agenda are now likely to vote for Biden instead of sitting out the election.
It will be a downright shame if Biden wins the presidency. He will restore all the Obama regulations that Trump has rightfully done away with. He will appoint Beto ‘Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47’ O’Rourke as his point man on gun control. He will restore the controversial Iran nuclear arms agreement and return to the Paris climate accord. He will disavow Trump’s recognition of Israel’s settlements as being legal and its sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Biden will restore funding to the UN agencies that have been constantly demonizing the Jewish state. And he will appoint liberal anti-gun, pro-abortion and criminal-cuddling Democrats to the Supreme Court. Look for Biden to replace a retiring Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with former Obama AG Eric Holder.
If the liberals become a majority of Justices on the Supreme Court, the Second Amendment will be interpreted as applying only to the military and the police, the wall will be torn down and the gates on our southern border will be opened, and the death penalty will be flushed down the crapper.
Caroline B. Glick, an Israeli columnist, has like Piers Morgan been a fierce critic of the Democrats and the anti-Trump media. She believes Trump has been getting bad advice from the experts. Glick says “Trump needs to figure out a way to get the US back to work within weeks while minimizing the infection and death rate even as he is receiving bad advice from his experts.”
Glick also sums it up correctly, saying: “If Trump does not find the advisors that will help him to successfully shepherd the US through the coronavirus crisis and save the US economy from depression and collapse, the coronavirus will beat him in November.”
If Trump achieves a robust economy by October, he will be considered a political genius and should defeat the ‘White Obama.’ If however, he reopens the economy too soon and the nation suffers more coronavirus deaths as a result, Trump will go down in history as the worst president ever.
In 2016, I held my nose as I voted against Hillary Clinton. Even though Trump kept his presidential campaign promises and did make America great again, this time around I won’t hold my nose because my conscience won’t let me vote for a deluded, boastful, petty and spiteful egomaniac. Although I want Trump to defeat Biden, I will be casting my ballot, not for Donald Trump, but for another Donald … I’ll be writing in Donald Duck.
Lot of struggles going on in Howie’s head. Must be tough to be so confounded.
I think I saw a Silver Alert for you on the North Freeway…
You better get back to the home and back on you meds…
♂️
Howie makes sense for a change. Trump is an awful little narcissistic man boy, who doesn’t take advice if it conflicts with his view. I am no fan of much of the Democrat platform, but there’s no way I’ll vote for Trump. We need someone who doesn’t think it’s all about him, who listens to advisers before making a considered decision, and who has the ability to lead without terrorizing people.
“Even though Trump kept his presidential campaign promises and did make America great again….”
So, even though Trump, by any metric, is a successful president who has finally put Americans and America first for a change, Orange Man still bad. Have I got that about right?
Howie, you really need to just give it up and go join your compadres over at Off the Kuff.
Yeah right, Bill. And Der Fuhrer made Germany great again.
Once again, Howie shows his negative side on President Trump. Howie, why don’t you just come out of the closet as a “Never Trumper” along with Robert Di Niro and most of the other Hollywood elitists? I’ll wager the vast number Trump blogs you have written have been negative toward our President. I read your diatribe this morning and it was almost as bad as your piece on Global Warming. However today you excluded a lot of positive things our President has done for us since taking office. You didn’t include the fact that Macy’s and JC Penny where already on life support before the pandemic. I also was surprised by your reference to unemployment lines. There isn’t and hasn’t been any lines because the TWC does not accept unemployment applications in person during the pandemic. This isn’t the great depression.
Yes, President Trump needs to lay off Twitter. He has made mistakes but overall he has done an outstanding job with bring back America to greatness. The pandemic was not his fault. Sometimes you just get dealt a bad hand. I happen to think he brought in the best minds and leaders to deal with the outbreak. I also think that in the end, we will see America come roaring back sooner than expected.
I was going to list many of the good things that President Trump has done for this country, but you wouldn’t listen because of your deep seated dislike of our President. So waste your vote on Donald Duck and throw another blog tantrum. Hurry, you don’t want to miss The View.
“I happen to think he brought in the best minds and leaders to deal with the outbreak.”
I disagree. Fauci and Birx are both compromised. They are tied up with Bill Gates and his vaccine quest, and both seem to be doing everything in their power to quash hydrochloroquine/z pack treatment, because, being off patent, there’s not a huge amount of money to be made vs. coming up with a vaccine
The interests of Fauci and Birx are not the interests of the American people, and definitely not the interest of the American economy.
“
You’re absolutely right, Trey, I don’t like Trump and did not like the obnoxious bully before he ever decided to run for president.
In 2016, the voters were given the choice of the two worst candidates in the history of the US. The only reason I voted for Trump was that he was the lesser of two evils.
And you are right when you say “I happen to think he brought in the best minds and leaders to deal with the outbreak.” But you overlook the fact that he does not listen to them. And he has fired a number of them when they didn’t agree with him.
I also give Trump credit for bringing America back to greatness. But then Adolf Hitler brought Germany back to greatness. Stalin brought Russia back to greatness. And Mao led the way to make China a great nation.
While there may not be any unemployment lines in Texas, that is not the case in most of the states where the lines stretch for blocks on end. And while this may not be the Great Depression, never since that time have so many people lined up for food handouts.
Now you say, “Yes, President Trump needs to lay off Twitter.” That’s strange because time after time you’ve stated that you like Trump’s tweets because he tells it like it is.
Of course America will come roaring back, but it probably won’t be in time to save Trump’s presidency. I suggest you extricate your head out of Trump’s ass if that’s possible, and prepare yourself to say “President Biden.”
Sorry, but I gotta go now … I don’t want to miss “The View.”
the head in Trump’s ass is about the most worn out dem insult there is, can’t you guys get a bit more creative?
Enough said. The rest of the blog was just a misleading presentation for this:
You’re absolutely right, Trey, I don’t like Trump and did not like the obnoxious bully before he ever decided to run for president.
yep
I don’t want to seem like I am pissing in the cornflakes, but this post is about five months premature. The stock market has clawed slightly more than 50% of its losses back. Trump still has solid support from a large chunk of the country. They do NOT blame him for Covid-19 and, at this point, they think his response to the pandemic has been reasonable and appropriate. Even if it turns out to have been excessive they will still believe it was reasonable, based on best information at the time. IF the long term and permanent job losses turn out to be very, very bad it may very well go against him. The president gets credit when the sun shines and the rain falls, even if he had nothing to do with it. He also gets the blame for hurricanes and tornadoes. It comes with the job. If the employment numbers are still in the crapper at the end of September, the Democrat-Socialists may be able to make a successful issue out of it. If not, I doubt it. We will know in about 198 days.
Yeah, Bob, but here’s the thing.
Howie has been wishing, hoping and prying for a Trump defeat since the man was inaugurated. If you go back and look at his posts, you’ll realize that everything the least little thing goes wrong, he’s celebrating the fact that it’s gonna get rid of Trump. This post is no different.
Howie’s securely fixed in the ranks of rabid never trumpers, and nothing you or I or anyone else can say is going to move him out. The best thing to do is to let him rave a bit, and get some approval from a few of his liberal buddies and other never-trumpers.
After a while he’ll calm down a bit and post other, more rational pieces. And, come November after Trump wins the next election -We can enjoy watching him melt down! It’ll be fun!
Yeah Fat, I’ve been a ‘never trumper’ ever since his daddy gave him $1 million to get started in business, but you are dead wrong when you say “Howie has been wishing, hoping and prying for a Trump defeat” because I am also a ‘never a Democrat for president’ guy.
Trump’s slimy character is exemplified by his own words: “Grab them by the pussy.” He’s just as bad as Bill Clinton, a perennial pussy grabber.
Fat, when you tell people that they should look at my posts to “realize that everything the least little thing goes wrong, he’s celebrating the fact that it’s gonna get rid of Trump” it indicates that either you did not read them carefully or your reading comprehension is at the kindergarten level, which I don’t believe.
the context of the quote was “when you have money these ladies will allow you to grab ’em by the pussy” Howie. It was a set up that back fired a week before the election. A tactic that had always worked for dems like Obama who opened Jack Ryan’s divorce records just before his senate election.
Your tainted projection of his character is shining a pretty bright light on yours btw
Howie,
Why on earth would you care about how much money his dad gave him, or for what reason? Trumps personal finances are, to put it bluntly, none of your damn business! Trust me on this, if there were even the smallest hint of malfeasance or criminality in his business dealings, then we’d all know about it by now.
As for his character, I’d much rather look at what he’s done than listen to what he’s said. But hey, that’s just me. You go right ahead and listen the the New York Times, MCNBC, and the gals on the view, I’m sure they will give you an unbiased, objective list of all of the Presidents evil doings.
Dan, I’m doing the same as Fat to prove a point. My bad!
Fat purposely cherry-picks sentences from my posts to falsely make it look like I want Trump to be defeated.
Howie, the problem is, I don’t think you actually want Trump to be defeated. But, you hate him so much that you just can’t keep yourself from bad mouthing him all the time.
It’s been more than three years now. You’ve seen what he’s accomplished. Get over yourself. You don’t have to love the guy, and you can certainly point out issues that he’s gotten wrong. But, for heavens sake – he tweets. Deal with it!
He says stupid things from time to time – deal with it!
He’s a self aggrandizing braggart – deal with it!
He’s NOT a politician! Deal with it and move on!
Fat, my friend. You conveniently overlooked the first word – Unfortunately – in the title and what I said about Biden. You plucked out only the negative stuff I said about Trump, thereby not getting, or not wanting to get the whole point of this post – Trump’s self-destructiveness is helping Biden.
In the end though, it will be the economy that either does it for Trump or does him in.
__________
This will be my final reply for this particular post because as the saying goes: If you are right you do not have to defend yourself, if you are wrong you cannot defend yourself.
Howie,
This has been some of the liveliest banter on BJT in a while. You post a Never Trump blog on a mainly conservative site and then sit back and watch the comments. I was outraged. I came back to BJT this morning looking for new comments. I read them and realized that you gave readers some relief from this Pandemic Shelter in Place with your blog. I was thoroughly entertained. Thanks.
What a wonderful example of fake news journalism. As one of the 45000 mentioned in this article, please dont speak for me or my colleagues. You know nothing about us or our field.
Jan, since I previously said that my last comment was my final one, I mulled your comment over for a day before deciding I had to respond to you.
I was not speaking for you or your colleagues, I merely stated what multiple news outlets reported, including several from the UK, one from Russia, and even one from Switzerland.
Here is just a partial list of news outlets which reported that Tillman had said he did his furloughed employees a favor so they would be first in the unemployment line:
Click2Houston
The Hill
Daily Beast
New York Daily News
New York Post
Daily Mail
Independent
The Blaze
Hearst Media Services
The Sun
Newsweek
RT (formerly Russia Today)
The World News (Switzerland)
ABC News
Houston Chronicle
Albany Times Union
KHOU 11
Associated Press
There were also numerous sports outlets that reported the same thing.
So take your beef to all the news and sports outlets which reported what your beloved boss said before you throw that ‘fake news’ crap this way. You should not have any trouble finding them because there are about eight Google pages listing outlets that reported what Fertitta said.
And be sure to thank Tillman for the favor he did you, that is if you are one of his furloughed employees.
Jan, just because you do not like what it said, that does not mean it is “fake.” I also note that Howie did not say anything about you or your field. I also feel inclined to point out that attacking someone over something they DID NOT do, does not serve you well. Neither does your headfake attempt to defend Mr. Fertitta.
That being said, please enjoy your time off work. Maybe you can do some scrap-booking.
remember when I said the dems putting Biden in the position to run was elder abuse? I stand by that and it will be confirmed pretty soon he won’t be the candidate
remember when I said this wuflu mess was a scam? the left censoring videos that show facts that don’t agree with the narrative confirms it
and now Harris County is going all in for mail in voting. SheJack and Al Green getting dozens of votes from the same PO boxes will be the norm now for dems county wide. getting out was the correct move. Good luck to those that are stuck.
oh my, there goes demedia’s weekend talking point
heard from every MSM outlet “TRUMP’S COVID19 VIRUS HAS KILLED MORE IN SIX WEEKS THAN WERE KILLED IN VIETNAM WAR!!!!”
Today the CDC nearly halved the death toll for 60,000 to 37,000
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm
Nice try, Dan, but your 37,000 figure does not compute. You forgot to mention the following quote from CDC:
NOTE: Number of deaths reported in this table are the total number of deaths received and coded as of the date of analysis and do not represent all deaths that occurred in that period.
*Data during this period are incomplete because of the lag in time between when the death occurred and when the death certificate is completed, submitted to NCHS and processed for reporting purposes. This delay can range from 1 week to 8 weeks or more, depending on the jurisdiction, age, and cause of death.
Health experts say the figure of 60,000 some deaths from COVID-19 is too low and that well over 100,000 will die in the US from the virus, with a daily death toll of 3,000 by June.
And the Corona deaths have indeed surpassed the 58,220 deaths US troops suffered during the Vietnam War.
CDC has conflicting data – https://www.dailywire.com/news/two-cdc-websites-give-vastly-different-coronavirus-death-tolls?ref=newsnetworks-dot-com
CDC and White House deny 3000/day claim – https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-administration-predicts-daily-virus-deaths-will-double-by-june-2020-5?r=US&IR=T
I had that screen I linked from the week before that over 60,000 where it now has the 37,800 number
Howie:
The fact is that you have absolutely no idea how many people have died from Covid-19. Neither does the CDC or anybody else. There are no sets of complete data, and, in a lot of cases, the data that is available is horribly skewed by obsolete reporting requirements or workers who are purposely trying to skew numbers. We’ve all heard documented stories of healthcare workers who have mis-classified deaths as due to Covid-19. The fact that CDC radically revised it’s numbers downward overnight may or may not indicate more hope. But it definitely doesn’t give me confidence in any data they report.
We also have no reliable data on the number of people who might be infected. Some statistics indicate that 50% or more of people who are infected never show appreciable symptoms. And development and distribution of reliable testing kits is just now starting to catch up. It’s entirely possible that the numbers of people infected will rise significantly over the next few weeks as we start testing more and more people.
But I do know this absolutely – if you don’t have a good idea how many people have died, and if you have no idea whatsoever how many people are infected, then you have absolutely no idea about how deadly this thing is or how to deal with it long term.
I would have a lot more confidence in the government/healthcare bureaucracy (as opposed to the actual healthcare workers in the trenches) if they started admitting what they don’t know instead of making a series of predictions that all turn out to be wrong.
As for whether Covid-19 has killed more (or less) people than dies in Vietnam. . . . That is one of the most stupid, asinine, ridiculous, brain-dead comparisons I’ve ever heard. Who gives a crap? Comparing a contemporary epidemic to a military action that happened a half century ago? Surely you have better things to do than worry about stupidity like that.
Fat and Dan, get this through your heads:
As of May 4, there have been at least 1,223,231 corona cases in the US and at least 71,107 have died from the virus.
And Fat, sorry, but I was not impressed by your conspiracy theories.
Agree, especially with the Vietnam comment. Why is it a significant portion of the time, it feels like I accidentally pulled up ShareBlue or Media Matters instead of BJ?
Howie,
I’ve posted no conspiracy theory. I don’t believe that there’s a conspiracy. I do however assume that since you have boldly stated a specific number of deaths in the US (as of yesterday) that you have an authoritative source for that data????
Here’s another question, since you’re apparently not asking any, how many of the people who have died from Covid-19 had serious underlying health issues already? What percentage of those 71,107 deaths had co-morbidity causes? What percentage of those 71,107 deaths are people who are past 70 years old? Inquiring minds would like to know!!!
er…um Howie, you realize your post two days ago refutes your absolution of the death toll you cited yesterday don’t you?
Does it hurt to be so confounded?
Confounded? Not me! My number of 71,107 deaths came from Worldometer, a fairly reliable website for corona stats from throughout the world.
But let’s go back to the CDC which you erroneously reported as having halved the number of COVUD-19 deaths. Today the CDC reported there have been 1,193,813 corona cases in the US with 70,802 deaths. And going back to the report you relied on, the CDC said their numbers “do not represent all deaths” because of delays in the filing of death certificates, which indicates the 70,802 figure is too low.
You’re right Howie:
Trump is a bloviating buffoon. He tweets like deranged madman. The economy is in the crapper. Hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of people are going to die. Their rotting carcasses will line our empty streets.
Biden will win and the US will end up as a 3rd world socialist dump.
There. feel better?
Fat, go try and take a dump! To help you, here’s something from Facebook that should unclog your bowel:
The View By Conservative Mom
I’m not posting this for debate. Just please consider this.., when you think the President is a jerk…
The bottom line has been that Trump IS a jerk. He’s crude, he bloviates, he gets his feelings hurt and he’s a hot head. And he should stay off Twitter.
Let me tell you what else he is. He is a guy that demands performance. He is a guy that asks lots of questions. The questions he asks aren’t cloaked in fancy phrases, they are “why the hell….” questions.
For decades the health industry has thrown away billions of face masks after one use. Trump asks, “Why the hell are we throwing them away? Why not sterilize them and use them numerous times?”
He’s the guy that gets hospital ships readied in one week, when it would have taken a bureaucrat weeks or months to get it done. He’s the guy that gets temporary hospitals built in three days. He’s the guy that gets industries to build ventilators and face masks in a business that’s highly regulated by agencies that move like sloths.
He’s the guy that asks why we aren’t using drugs that might work on people that are dying; what the hell do we have to lose? In spite of all the naysayers. He’s the guy that shut down travel from China, when the liberals and the media were screaming xenophobia and racist. Now they are asking why didn’t he react sooner?
He’s the guy that ran on securing the border in the face of a screaming press and media. When he shut down borders in the midst of the coronavirus virus they were up in arms over such a draconian move. Then the rest of the world followed suit all over, including the European Union between member countries.
Has he made mistakes, yep. Everyone I know would have. All of these experts wouldn’t have done any better. Trump is working harder than I’ve ever seen a President work. He isn’t hiding in his office, he’s out front every day.
Take for instance, all the shortages of PPE’s and ventilators. I’m unaware of anything that prevented all of these governors from ordering all the PPE and ventilators for emergency purposes over the last two years. And yet, it is Trump’s fault that they didn’t.
He’s balanced his approach and listened to the experts, when his distractors said he wouldn’t and couldn’t. When he offers hope, “he’s lying” … and when he’s straight forward, “he should be hopeful”.
It’s a no-win, but he is not deterred by all of that BS coming from the press and the liberals. I’ll take this kind of leadership over a nice guy that can make eloquent speeches but does nothing.
He is my President!!!
I just want to know if conservative mom has a like minded, unmarried sister, because she has an excellent bead on things.
Howie,
I absolutely agree with every single thing that Conservative Mom wrote. I also happen to think that Trump (in spite of his many faults) is the best President that we’ve had since Ronald Reagan.
And, while I don’t think that it will be an earth shattering landslide, I do think that Trump will easily win in November.
Let’s hope Flynn being freed today is the start of the downfall of the coup plotters and participants, including Obama and Biden. Could it be that Trump really is playing 45-D underwater chess, and Flynn begins the counterattack? Mueller’s prosecutor Van Grack just pulled out of all cases he was prosecuting, meaning he’s probably getting canned. Then there is the release of all Adam Shiff’s bunker interviews, where one by one, they all say they had zero knowledge of any Russian collusion with anyone on Trump’s team. No evidence, but Mueller gets appointed anyway? Hopefully we are at the beginning of indictment and arrest season for the Obama-Biden players. Combine that with Joey Two Fingers’ dementia and sexual assault allegations and it spells big win for Trump.
If this actually comes to fruition and Durham starts rolling out indictments, lots of Americans are going to have a gut check moment….”Are we the baddies?”