Shout or stay silent? Trump team splits over coronavirus surge

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

The Trump White House has a new internal battle: how much to talk publicly about a pandemic that’s crippling huge swaths of America.

President Donald Trump’s top aides are divided over the merits of resuming national news briefings to keep the public informed about the latest coronavirus statistics as infection rates spike in large states including California, Texas, Florida, Arizona and Georgia.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, senior adviser Jared Kushner, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and counselor to the president Hope Hicks are among the aides arguing against these regular sessions because they want to keep the White House focused on the path forward and the nascent economic recovery — without scaring too much of the country about a virus resurgence when infections are rising at different paces in different regions.

Other senior aides, as well as Vice President Mike Pence and his team, believe keeping Americans up to date about the nature of the outbreak is critical as the death toll rises. More than 126,000 people have perished in the U.S. because of the coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the government’s own experts are warning of serious trouble ahead.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/30/trump-team-coronavirus-emergency-346199

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Or they could erect a cheap and simple Somebody Else's Problem field on it

Douglas Adams's 1982 novel Life, the Universe and Everything (in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series) introduces the idea of an "SEP field" as a kind of cloaking device. The character Ford Prefect says,

An SEP is something we can't see, or don't see, or our brain doesn't let us see, because we think that it's somebody else's problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it's like a blind spot.

The narration then explains:

The Somebody Else's Problem field... relies on people's natural predisposition not to see anything they don't want to, weren't expecting, or can't explain. If Effrafax had painted the mountain pink and erected a cheap and simple Somebody Else’s Problem field on it, then people would have walked past the mountain, round it, even over it, and simply never have noticed that the thing was there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_else%27s_problem

[Danmel]

2. That is a very good analogy

From your fellow Brooklynite.

[Renew Deal]

3. They should consider that Kushner is wrong about everything

[groundloop]

4. Fucking bastards.... Americans are dying and they fret about their image.

The whole lot of them are disgusting.

[Scarsdale]

5. Hope Hicks is

Counselor to the President"??? Wasn't she a former employee of Ivanka's fashion company? Last I heard she was "Chief steamer in charge" of steaming tRump's pants (while he was wearing them) for public appearances. So, maybe they ARE doing what Ivanka advised, and hiring people for their abilities and experience, rather than a degree? I wonder if she has expanded her duties to include steaming Jared's pants, too?

[marie999]

6. Is Pence going to go against trump on the pandemic n/t

[Bayard]

7. If this were 126,000 people

Killed by protestors, they would be all over it.

[generalbetrayus]

8. Wait, does Mike Pence actually have a soul,

or does he just realize that ignoring the pandemic as the body count continues to rise is actually a bad political strategy?

[intrepidity]

9. He likes the camera time nt

[CozyMystery]

10. He's probably hoping Trump gets evicted so he can run for the Rs.

I can think of no other reason for him to side against Trump, even with this light touch.

Last week, I heard him say, in response to a question about the pandemic, that they were trying to uphold the First Amendment rights of all Americans (freedom of assembly, IIRC). He was totally wrong on this, IMO.

Then he goes to a church, and sits in the front row wearing a mask.

The Repukes are wavering slightly on the mask issue. I am thinking that they are putting out feelers re dumping Trump (at the convention?), and that Pence hopes that he will be crowned the New King of stalwart evil-doers across the country.

This is all conjecture, of course.

[HotTeaBag]

11. How is this even a question up for debate?

What other group of people would feel that keeping Americans in the dark about what's happening would be the proper course of action?

How in the world did the worst of the worst end up running this country?

It truly is a Kleptocracy.