The Next President of the United States

[Marky147]

He is, no doubt, a loon, as you say, but I love his daily presentations. There is so much detail compared to ours. I can't watch Pence though - my boredom threshold goes into overload whenever he starts speaking and I don't take anything in. A good place to hide information you need to release, but don't want people to notice, would be in a Mike Pence speech. I'm usually watching a bit behind, so I often skip through him.

After watching our lot look at the floor and shuffle their feet when asked about an exit strategy, it was interesting to see that the Yanks have theirs ready, or at least the headlines of one, which Birx showed and has now been published - https://www.whitehouse.gov/openingamerica/#criteria. Their motives and ability to manage it may be questionable, but at least they've produced a common-sense model.

He's gotten a lot better, and as long as he doesn't stray too far off what they've discussed, he's fine. Oh, and has to make sure not to get into firefights with reporters, as that just makes him look bad, too. Pence would fit in well with our mob over here

 As you say, it's probably not a great idea, but at least they have something worked out, and are going to try moving out of things. If it doesn't, they'll just move back and it'll be a see saw for the rest of the year. Same thing going to happen here, I would imagine. We just don't know how yet, unfortunately.

[kukushkin88]

Live at 3pm ET, 8pm here:

https://theintercept.com/2020/04/15/biden-trump-noam-chomsky-mehdi-hasan/

[MintTrav]

It looked like Texas would be the first to lift restrictions, from 1 May, but several Governors have made announcements today:

- Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced that the order to stay at home will expire on 30 May, and most businesses will reopen on 1 May.

- South Carolina Gov Henry McMaster says that department stores, markets and lots of other types of shops can reopen from tomorrow at 20% capacity. He also reopening the beaches from tomorrow.

- Our old friend Brian Kemp has just announced that he's allowing some businesses to reopen from this Friday:
Gyms
Fitness centres
Bowling alleys
Barbers
Hairdressers
Nail salons
Massage therapists
Body art studios
Beauticians

Can't see any risk of transmission with any of those.

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/kemp-restaurants-other-businesses-to-reopen-in-georgia-amid-covid-19-fight

[MintTrav]

Protestors in favour of reopening came up against some unexpected blocks in Denver, Colorado.

Click to see full-size image.

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[Ironside]

It looked like Texas would be the first to lift restrictions, from 1 May, but several Governors have made announcements today:

- Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced that the order to stay at home will expire on 30 May, and most businesses will reopen on 1 May.

did you mean 30th of APRIL

[Marky147]

Just watched a bit of that presser, but turned it off when he started holding up A4 printouts of headlines cheering him on

That bird in the pick up was a delight... Fucking mongs 

[Doobs]

It looked like Texas would be the first to lift restrictions, from 1 May, but several Governors have made announcements today:

- Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced that the order to stay at home will expire on 30 May, and most businesses will reopen on 1 May.

- South Carolina Gov Henry McMaster says that department stores, markets and lots of other types of shops can reopen from tomorrow at 20% capacity. He also reopening the beaches from tomorrow.

- Our old friend Brian Kemp has just announced that he's allowing some businesses to reopen from this Friday:
Gyms
Fitness centres
Bowling alleys
Barbers
Hairdressers
Nail salons
Massage therapists
Body art studios
Beauticians

Can't see any risk of transmission with any of those.

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/kemp-restaurants-other-businesses-to-reopen-in-georgia-amid-covid-19-fight

Trump put out the conditions to reopen the other day and they were definitely open to different interpretations.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/openingamerica/

Take the cases one

Downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14-day period

OR

Downward trajectory of positive tests as a percent of total tests within a 14-day period (flat or increasing volume of tests)

Any reader of the COVID thread here would now that the number of new cases can fall with the number of tests or after a weekend.  So you can see a downward trajectory of cases for a couple of days "within" a fourteen day period quite easily.  "Over a 14 day period" would be a much stricter criterion, but it doesn't say that.  Given this can happen at country level here, then it must be easier to get this kind of result at State level in the USA  (I just checked and there are 7 States with less than a million people).

That assumes that the Governors will follow the criteria, which judging by the above post, they aren't gonig to.  There are a couple of States that have barely had a lockdown at all so far (I think South Dakota was one).  Can't see how this all ends well.  

I can see why Trump wants to reopen for his re-election hopes, but somebody needs to point out to him what exponential growth means.  For example South Dakota is only reporting 7 deaths, but there are a lot of weeks between now and November.  Do they calculate that if they can lay the blame at everyone else but Trump it won't make much difference to his vote there?  Do they think it is better to get the deaths over with, so that come November most will have moved on?  

[MintTrav]

It looked like Texas would be the first to lift restrictions, from 1 May, but several Governors have made announcements today:

- Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced that the order to stay at home will expire on 30 May, and most businesses will reopen on 1 May.

did you mean 30th of APRIL

Yes,

[MintTrav]

Attention is on Georgia this week following the Governor’s decision.

Here’s part of Kemp’s announcement. We know what he said but I could watch his sign language guy all day.




The Mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, has been on every show available saying she doesn’t agree.




Other mayors around the State say they weren’t consulted either:




Kemp is ahead of even Trump here. The President had barely issued the guidelines for phased reopening of States, dependent on several criteria, which were themselves seen as bullish, when Kemp just went ahead and ignored them. It’s clear that Deborah Birx is behind the guidelines, and was probably glad to have pushed Trump as far as he went. Georgia was raised at the WH briefing and, while she gave a very diplomatic answer, it was clear that she wasn’t impressed. “If there’s a way that people can social distance and do those things, then they can do those things. I don’t know how...” Similar to Lance Bottoms, she suggested that different parts of the State should not all be treated the same and implied that Kemp hadn’t produced the data he should have to support his decision.




Governor Kemp has responded to the criticism:

[Marky147]

Santa putting his work in early this year

[Marky147]

Nice of him to tell everyone, lol.

He must have forgotten to email the  others.

[MintTrav]

Wow, Trump is sticking it to Kemp.

Says he has told the Governor that he disagrees strongly with the decision.

I can’t remember him ever slapping down a Republican Governor like that before.

[Marky147]

Amazing how people get such different things from interviews.

[Marky147]

Wow, Trump is sticking it to Kemp.

Says he has told the Governor that he disagrees strongly with the decision.

I can’t remember him ever slapping down a Republican Governor like that before.

Have to hunt that one out, or is he doing it on Twitter?

[Marky147]

Trump heading in for an inking after this is over